Wifi doesn't work | Fedora 40 | Broadcom

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1

Hi everyone! After my fresh installation of Fedora 40, system can’t see wifi. I have installed package broadcom-wl and reboot, but wifi still doesn’t work. Wire connection works pretty well. My computer is i7 iMac (27-inch, Late 2009).
My ip link output:

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp2s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
link/ether 58:b0:35:f3:11:42 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

My lshw -C network output:

*-network
description: Ethernet interface
product: NetXtreme BCM5764M Gigabit Ethernet PCIe
vendor: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
logical name: enp2s0
version: 10
serial: 58:b0:35:f3:11:42
size: 100Mbit/s
capacity: 1Gbit/s
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm vpd msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=tg3 driverversion=6.9.5-200.fc40.x86_64 duplex=full firmware=5764m-v3.35 ip=192.168.0.13 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=twisted pair speed=100Mbit/s
resources: irq:38 memory:d0500000-d050ffff
2

Added imac

3

We need more details.

I have a Late 2012 iMac with BCM4360 that works using the rpmfusion broadcom-wl driver:

% dnf info broadcom-wl
Installed Packages
Name         : broadcom-wl
Version      : 6.30.223.271
Release      : 23.fc40
Architecture : noarch
Size         : 38 k
Source       : broadcom-wl-6.30.223.271-23.fc40.src.rpm
Repository   : @System
From repo    : rpmfusion-nonfree
Summary      : Common files for Broadcom 802.11 STA driver
URL          : https://www.broadcom.com/support/download-search?pg=Legacy+Products&pf=Legacy+Wireless&pn=&pa=&po=&dk=&pl=
License      : Redistributable, no modification permitted
Description  : This package contains the license, README.txt and configuration
             : files for the Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA Driver for WiFi, a Linux
             : device driver for use with Broadcom's BCM4311-, BCM4312-, BCM4313-,
             : BCM4321-, BCM4322-, BCM43142-, BCM43224-, BCM43225-, BCM43227-,
             : BCM43228-, BCM4331-, BCM4360 and -BCM4352- based hardware.

% lsmod | grep wl    
wl                   6520832  0
cfg80211             1421312  1 wl

Try:

% journalctl --no-hostname -b -g ' wl' |cat
Jun 23 20:36:50 akmods[866]: Building and installing wl-kmod[  OK  ]
Jun 23 20:36:53 kernel: Modules linked in: wl(POE+) cfg80211 nf_conntrack_netbios_ns nf_conntrack_broadcast nft_fib_inet nft_fib_ipv4 nft_fib_ipv6 nft_fib nft_reject_inet nf_reject_ipv4 nf_reject_ipv6 nft_reject nft_ct nft_chain_nat nf_nat nf_conntrack nf_defrag_ipv6 nf_defrag_ipv4 ip_set nf_tables qrtr bnep sunrpc intel_rapl_msr intel_rapl_common x86_pkg_temp_thermal intel_powerclamp iTCO_wdt snd_hda_codec_cirrus snd_hda_codec_generic snd_hda_codec_hdmi at24 coretemp intel_pmc_bxt kvm_intel snd_hda_intel mei_hdcp mei_pxp iTCO_vendor_support btusb snd_intel_dspcfg applesmc snd_intel_sdw_acpi kvm snd_hda_codec btrtl snd_hda_core btintel uvcvideo btbcm snd_hwdep uvc videobuf2_vmalloc btmtk snd_seq binfmt_misc rapl snd_seq_device videobuf2_memops intel_cstate pcspkr bluetooth videobuf2_v4l2 i2c_i801 intel_uncore mei_me i2c_smbus tg3 videobuf2_common snd_pcm mei videodev vfat fat lpc_ich rfkill snd_timer mc snd soundcore acpi_als industrialio_triggered_buffer kfifo_buf industrialio apple_mfi_fastcharge loop dm_multipath nfnetlink
Jun 23 20:36:53 kernel:  wl_module_init+0x17/0xa0 [wl]
Jun 23 20:36:53 kernel: wl 0000:03:00.0 wlp3s0: renamed from eth0
Jun 23 20:36:53 NetworkManager[1290]: <info>  [1719185813.8048] rfkill1: found Wi-Fi radio killswitch (at /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.2/0000:03:00.0/ieee80211/phy0/rfkill1) (driver wl)
Jun 23 20:36:58 avahi-daemon[867]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface wlp3s0.IPv6 with address fe80::1734:4ae3:4cd8:1045.
Jun 23 20:36:58 avahi-daemon[867]: New relevant interface wlp3s0.IPv6 for mDNS.
Jun 23 20:36:58 avahi-daemon[867]: Registering new address record for fe80::1734:4ae3:4cd8:1045 on wlp3s0.*.
Jun 23 20:37:01 avahi-daemon[867]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface wlp3s0.IPv4 with address 192.168.2.95.
Jun 23 20:37:01 avahi-daemon[867]: New relevant interface wlp3s0.IPv4 for mDNS.
Jun 23 20:37:01 avahi-daemon[867]: Registering new address record for 192.168.2.95 on wlp3s0.IPv4.
2 Likes
4

lsmod | grep wl prints nothing,

journalctl --no-hostname -b -g ' wl' |cat output: -- No entries --

5

Can you verify you have the package installed then :

6

Output the same:

Available Packages
Name         : broadcom-wl
Version      : 6.30.223.271
Release      : 23.fc40
Architecture : noarch
Size         : 24 k
Source       : broadcom-wl-6.30.223.271-23.fc40.src.rpm
Repository   : rpmfusion-nonfree
Summary      : Common files for Broadcom 802.11 STA driver
URL          : https://www.broadcom.com/support/download-search?pg=Legacy+Products&pf=Legacy+Wireless&pn=&pa=&po=&dk=&pl=
License      : Redistributable, no modification permitted
Description  : This package contains the license, README.txt and configuration
             : files for the Broadcom 802.11 Linux STA Driver for WiFi, a Linux
             : device driver for use with Broadcom's BCM4311-, BCM4312-,
             : BCM4313-, BCM4321-, BCM4322-, BCM43142-, BCM43224-, BCM43225-,
             : BCM43227-, BCM43228-, BCM4331-, BCM4360 and -BCM4352- based
             : hardware.
7

:thinking: @gnwiii Any ideas, It doesn’t appear on the list. . .

8

It is not the same. Yours says “available” which means not installed. The above post says “installed”.

1 Like
9

Oh sorry, I have installed package and reboot, but output of these commands doesn’t change.

10

Can you provide the results of

  • lspci | grep -i network

  • sudo modprobe wl

  • ip link show

Then we can try sudo dnf install b43-fwcutter broadcom-wl

Which will install :

the b43-fwcutter tool to install Broadcom firmware
The b43 and b43legacy drivers included in the kernel require 
firmware images to load onto a Broadcom wireless device in order 
to make them function. 

https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/b43-fwcutter

Then :

sudo dracut --force and sudo reboot

After reboot, Check :

  • dmesg | grep wl

  • rfkill list all

1 Like
11

Wow, thank you! First and second commands outputs is empty, ip link show:

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: enp2s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 58:b0:35:f3:11:42 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

I will check your commands now, after write result here

12 
0: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no

Other commands didn’t print anything and the WI-FI isn’t working yet :frowning:

13

Am I wrong here, or are you trying to make use of a Wi-Fi driver for an Ethernet adapter?

1 Like
14

This says it is available but not installed.
sudo dnf install broadcom-wl should manage that for you.

As noted above that would not be the proper driver for an ethernet interface.

1 Like
15

is the wired network. Wifi on iMacs from that era was BCM4360.

Looks like linux doesn’t find the BCM4360 on @xtry8’s system. doas lshw -C network finds both wired and wireless interfaces on my system.
I often use a cheap USB wifi dongle in such situations. There may be a system firmware setting to disable wifi, but changing it may need macOS.

More questions:

  • can the system boot aother OS, and if so does wifi work?
  • is Broadcom firmware installed? Here:
% dnf info brcmfmac-firmware.noarch
Last metadata expiration check: 5:50:22 ago on Wed 26 Jun 2024 01:16:57 PM.
Installed Packages
Name         : brcmfmac-firmware
Version      : 20240610
Release      : 1.fc40
Architecture : noarch
Size         : 9.5 M
Source       : linux-firmware-20240610-1.fc40.src.rpm
Repository   : @System
From repo    : updates
Summary      : Firmware for Broadcom/Cypress brcmfmac WiFi/Bluetooth adapters
URL          : http://www.kernel.org/
License      : Redistributable, no modification permitted
Description  : Firmware for Broadcom/Cypress brcmfmac WiFi/Bluetooth adapters.
1 Like
16

I have tried Ubuntu 24.04 and Arch (on LiveCD and installed) before Fedora, but WiFi doesn’t work everywhere. I recently changed the drive on my Mac and installed Linux on it. Package brcmfmac-firmware.noarch is installed. Thank you guys, The problem is in the firmware, solution if others have the problem too, just use MacOs?

17

Added broadcom

18

@xtry8 wants wifi, but the system doesn’t detect the wifi hardware.

1 Like
19

Got it. It just seemed to me that the discussion about Wi-Fi went around the Broadcom adapter type BCM5764M, which is the system’s Ethernet adapter.

Only I couldn’t find in the OP’s posts any reference to the type/code of the Wi-Fi adapter. Except that it’s supposed to be from Broadcom.

1 Like
20

Also, after a short internet research (not on Apple’s official website, as I couldn’t find such detailed information there), it seems that the Late 2009 iMac was equipped with Broadcom Wi-Fi adapter BCM943***, which the broadcom-wl driver doesn’t seem to cover anyway, according to package description.